Sunday, October 18, 2009

The Panthers and Bucs showed why they are a combined 1-8 in the first half. And they have set the stage for what promises to be an angry second half following a terrible personal foul on Carolina's Dante Wesley that incited the entire Tampa Bay bench and crowd.

Both teams have now missed field goals -- the Bucs had a 43-yarder go short, and John Kasay had a 52-yarder blocked. And they've both fumbled the ball in bad situations.

As for the fumbles: First, Tampa Bay lost one on a pitchout at its own 23, and Carolina's Hollis Thomas recovered.

However, the Panthers' Jonathan Stewart then returned that gift, fumbling after a 14-yard run to Tampa Bay's 3. That negated a possible Carolina TD and instead kept the score at 7-7.

So that's where it remained at halftime -- tied at 7-all. Tampa Bay had another mild drive short-circuited by a penalty and a Julius Peppers sack. Carolina then got the ball on its own 20 with 56 seconds left and all three timeouts but couldn't get but one first down (Jake Delhomme wasn't helped by two Dante Rosario drops on that drive).

Carolina then ran its patented third-and-10 draw play and fell well short, which was about to bring a forgettable half to a thankful close. But first, there was a big scrum that began when Carolina's Dante Wesley absolutely creamed a helpless Clifton Smith while Smith was waiting for a punt.

What got into Wesley is hard to imagine -- he's never been considered a dirty player. It will be interesting to hear his explanation.

Wesley got a 15-yard personal foul penalty and was correctly thrown out of the game. The crowd yelled "Throw him out! Throw him out!" before the official action was announced. Smith stayed on the ground for some time, flat on his back, but then walked off under his own power.

No excuse for the Wesley hit but I saw something earlier that raised a question. On an earlier punt, the Tampa return man called for a fair catch and then laid a hit on the oncoming Carolina special team player. It seems that the fair catch signal gives the punt returner carte blanche to lay a hit on someone while knowing that he won't be hit. I don't know whether it was Wesley who took the earlier hit or not. Just wondering if Wesley's hit was retribution for an earlier hit.

No need to judge a guy on one play/decision, although I'm 100% behind any suspension/fine/etc. that's gonna come his way. He deserves every bit of that penalty, but isn't automatically a thug because of it.

Number 1: Wesley obviously anticipated the ball arriving after he launched and just as he arrived, which would have been legal and made Sportscenter as a great hit.Number 2: Guys pick up the "Hitting a defenseless wide receiver" call all the time and don't get thrown out for it.Number 3: If the ball arrived just as the hit occured he would have taken exactly the same hit and there would have been nothing the refs could have done about it.